Troy Wharf Office, WD3

Planning Permission, Rickmansworth, Herts

For this planning permission project, the proposed new office building of the Marble and Granite Centre is located in an idyllic rural centre adjacent to Troy Lake near Rickmansworth. The scheme utilises an existing industrial retaining wall originally built for the mixing of concrete. The lake formally a gravel pit provided aggregate for the concrete, a large earth berm was constructed to allow lorries to load materials into the batching plant below. The old machinery has been decommissioned leaving the remnants of the old supporting structure.

The proposal inserts a new four storey office building facing the main open storage area housing hundreds of large marble slabs imported from around the world. The main elevation is expressed as a single glass curtain wall recessed at ground floor maximising light into the building and creating a monolithic crystalline structure echoing the polished stone in the yard. The side elevations are clad in timber below a green mono-pitched roof facing south, minimising the impact of the building on the lake setting.

Internally, the unobstructed office areas on each floor are maximised by the positioning of the lift, stair and services at the rear of the plan. The basement provides storage and changing areas along with plant and utility space.

The building is heated and cooled via a geothermal heating system. Three 100 metre bore holes in front of the building provided cooled water to a heat pump which in turn supplied a fully integrated underfloor heating/cooling system and ceiling mounted fan coils. Ventilation to the building is managed by an air supply and extract fan with heat exchanger to minimise heat loss.

The scheme received planning permission in 2005 and commenced on site 2006.